With the introduction of the Knowledge Graph, Google will be able to distinguish that when a user searches for ‘Taj Mahal’, he may be searching for information related to the monument in Agra, or the Bollywood film by the same name, or the American blues musician, or even one of several restaurants that are called Taj Mahal, and filter results accordingly. When a user types in a query, Google first shows a box on the right, where the user will be able to select what he is searching for, and see results accordingly.

For the query ‘Andromeda’, the Knowledge Graph would give the option of searching for the galaxy, the television series, or the Swedish band.

Additionally, for every search term, there will first be an aggregated collection of basic information, that encompasses a summary of information relevant to the most common queries. For instance, searching for a famous person like Jawaharlal Nehru, will first show a summary of biological data like Wikipedia has, such as dates of birth and death, family details, where he was born, photographs, etc.; additionally it will also include a panel of things related to him, such as Indira Gandhi, the Indian National Congress, A Tryst With Destiny, Bharat Ratna, and more. The image below shows the search result for American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

This panel will be tailored to deliver information that best relates to the initial search result, similar to Amazon‘s ‘people who bought this also bought’ feature. This enables users to dig more deeply into subjects that they are interested in.

The information will be pulled from Google’s various associated databases such as Wikipedia, Freebase, Google Maps and more. Currently, the Knowledge Graph has over 500 million people, places and things, which in turn have at least 3.5 billion attributes.

Watch this video where Jack Menzel, the Product Management Director and others from Google talk about the feature:

This feature has already been introduced for some users in the U.S. and will be rolled out  to everyone soon, on web as well as mobile and tablet devices and will be seeing a global launch shortly.

We had reported earlier about Bing partnering with Facebook and Twitter to make search more social. With this update, Google has tried to make search smarter.

With post tagging, page owners can categorise posts according to campaigns, subject or content type (links, photos or text). Geo-tags and URL data get automatically tagged as well, making it easier to compare and analyse the popularity of individual posts, and categories of posts. This feature also makes the posts searchable. For instance, tags like ‘Apple‘ and ‘Android‘ can be added, and then an analysis can be done to see how posts containing each tag are received. This article explains how the tagging feature works.

Another useful element is the Alerts feature. It offers alerts when users unlike a page, and for changes in reach, growth, people talking about this and other metrics. Alerts can be customised and set according to the sensitivity desired by the page owner.

PageLever, whose clients include Microsoft, YouTube and Baskin Robbins, offers a variety of metrics and analysis based on Facebook insights data, and has recently been given the status of a ‘Preferred Marketing Developer’ by Facebook. It scores over Facebook Insights by providing post-by-post data that is very valuable for marketers and page owners.

Do you think post tagging and alerts are useful features to have for your brand page? What analytics tool do you use for your page? Share with us.

There were multiple topics related to the show that were trending on Sunday, including Aamir Khan, Sri Devi, who made a guest appearance on the show, and child sex abuse, which was the subject of this week’s episode. Conversations around the show peaked during the show’s telecast, similar to the previous week, but the numbers were lower, especially later in the day.

It is possible that this might be due to several big events happening on Sunday evening, such as the EPL final, as well as the fact that it was Mother’s Day, and the Indian Parliament completing 60 years. The reach and impressions were much lower – 40,85,118 and 1,50,17,483 – as compared to last week’s figures. This is likely due to less tweets by major influencers and celebrities with a high Twitter following.

However, the subject of the show was praised, and they were highly commended for bringing to light and educating people about such a delicate and significant issue as child sex abuse.

Here is the complete report from Blogworks:

Bing’s re-design adds a Sidebar where users see results from various social networking websites that contain the term that is being searched for. In addition, it also includes a feature to ask questions of their friends or people who are knowledgeable on the subject,  which it suggests, based on what those people have liked, tweeted or blogged about.

Bing scores over Google, not only because it leverages Microsoft’s partnerships with Facebook and Twitter to curate a wider variety of social search results for the users, but also because it doesn’t clutter up the main search pane with these results, and instead aggregates them in a separate sidebar to the right of the main pane. It now remains to be seen whether these updates can entice users away from Google, which is the undisputed leader in search engines.

More good news from Bing came in the form of the Experian Hitwise report that in April 2012, Bing powered over 30% of all U.S. internet searches. Both Bing and Yahoo search, which is also powered by Bing, showed an increase of 16% and 7% respectively from the previous year, while Google showed a 5% drop in internet search share from April 2011.

A report from comScore presents slightly different numbers. According to this, Yahoo’s share has dropped, while Google has held steady, but Bing’s total share is still up. ComScore reports a total share of 28.9% of all internet searches, as opposed to 30.01% as reported by Experian Hitwise.

All in all, there are high stakes involved for both, and Google would be wise to keep a sharp eye on Bing.

The URL shortening and tracking service bitly has recently released a study, on when content is the most widely-propagated on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr globally.

Twitter :

Each of the plots below show the hours of the day, starting from midnight, along the X-axis; and the days of the week, starting with Monday, along the Y-axis. The darkest blocks show the time when links get maximum views., and the lightest when they have minimum views.

Based on this, the best time to post content on Twitter is early afternoon –  1pm to 3pm on weekdays, Monday through Thursday. Links get minimal exposure after 8pm on weekdays, and almost none after 3pm on Fridays through the weekend.

Facebook :

Facebook traffic peaks mid-week on Wednesday. The best time to post is during 1pm and 4pm on weekdays. Early mornings, evenings and weekends are low traffic times.

Tumblr :

Tumblr has very different patterns – here traffic is low during the day and picks up post 4pm, with 7pm to 10pm being the best time to post. Weekend evenings are also a high traffic time, completely converse to Facebook and Twitter.

It is important to note however, that merely posting between these times will not guarantee that a link will get more clicks, as it will also have more content to compete with for the fans’ attention.

Another thing to consider is how long after a link is shared do we consider it ‘active’? This can be evaluated by calculating the half life of a link i.e. the amount of time at which a link will receive half of the clicks it will ever receive after it has reached its peak.

While this time will necessarily be different depending on the type of content, a bitly study shows that, on an average, the half life of a link on Twitter is 2.8 hours, on Facebook it is 3.2 hours and via direct sources like email or IM clients it is 3.4 hours.

This also concurs with a recent study by Edgerank about the average life span of a Facebook post being 3 hours and 7 minutes. As per the study, a post receives the maximum amount of comments and likes within the three hours of its posting and then the engagement then begins to dwindle.

While these studies and tools help in providing a general idea about how content is perceived by users, the results differ across verticals and domains, and are dependent on a page’s own fans and followers.

What strategies do you, as a brand manager, use to calculate the ideal posting time? Do these insights agree with your experience on different links? Share your thoughts with us.

The conversations that a television show produced, when viewers would discuss it the next day with friends and colleagues – the ‘water cooler’ conversations – are now happening instantaneously. The long awaited Satyamev Jayate, dominated Twitter conversations on Sunday, 6 May, and the volume of mentions on it peaked at 12 noon, during the telecast of the show.

A trend that begun with viewers talking about live events such as sports broadcasts and award and reality shows, has now grown and extended to most television programming. Posting comments about TV shows on Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms grew 146% from April 2011 to April 2012, according to Trendrr, which tracks social-media trends in television.

Broadcasters have already realised the value of the second screen in boosting ratings. Victoria Jaye, Head of IPTV and TV Online Content, BBC Vision presents the idea behind creating companion content on the BBC blog.

“The ‘companion experience’ refers to additional content offered on a companion screen (PC, mobile, tablet or even the same TV), related to and synchronized with the programme you’re watching on TV. This could be further information, a play along experience, social or control features – the overall aim being to enhance the audiences’ TV viewing.” – Victoria Jaye

That the industry attaches great importance to this trend is evident in the conferences that are being organised on it – such as the upcoming Connected TV Summit and the Social TV World Summit, in London. There are also several apps that have been built to enhance the fan experience, such as GetGlue, with over 2 million users which encourages fans to ‘check in’ and let friends know what they’re watching, and provides a forum to discuss the shows; Viggle, which offers rewards (movie tickets, music downloads, gift cards) for watching certain shows; Miso, which offers a summary of plot lines for the show you’re watching and provides slide shows, polls and discussions. Most major networks have also launched official apps which provide exclusive content for fans.

This is an opportunity ripe for advertisers and marketers, especially in the segment of media and entertainment,  to cash in on – a show that has a large community of dedicated and engaged viewers who are already involved in conversations online, is one that is ideal for brands to leverage.

“Marketers have already caught on to the importance of ‘viral’ spread of  content.” - Madhavan Narayanan (@madversity on Twitter), Associate Editor, Hindustan Times, in his column.

In October 2011, Pepsi unveiled two new digital platforms, Pepsi Sound Off and Pepsi Pulse to focus on their American show ‘The X Factor‘ and drive social engagement around  it and other Pepsi entertainment properties in the future.

Pepsi Pulse is a real-time digital visualization of the conversations taking place on the social web around key Pepsi entertainment properties. The platform shapes the volume of social data into a visual storyline and gives consumers a forum to follow the ‘pulse’ of a certain topic or individual in real-time. Pepsi Sound Off allows ‘The X Factor’ fans to connect with each other and incorporates gaming mechanics to enhance the social TV experience. It is visualised as an application that allows fans to engage online in an immersive, addictive and social fashion, which not only builds loyalty for the TV show but also deepens Pepsi’s credentials as an active participant in popular culture while dialing-up the entertainment for fans.

In India too, we have several television shows that see widespread second screen usage. Can we shortly expect brands to drive campaigns around shows like MTV Roadies, Coke Studio, Bigg Boss or Dance India Dance? Share your thoughts with us.

The show aims to address India’s socioeconomic issues, and is scheduled to air every Sunday at 11 am on nine channels, including Star Plus and DD National. The first episode, which was on the issue of female foeticide, was lauded widely and the show drew comparisons with the Oprah Winfrey Show, the immensely popular and highest-rated talk show in American television history. 16,700 Tweets about Satyamev Jayate were posted between 12 am and 3 pm on Sunday, with a reach of 5,536,790 and the impressions generated were 13,742,993.

Conversations were centered around the content of the show, Aamir Khan as the anchor, the music, the re-emergence of Sunday morning as a prime time television slot, and the positive impact of the show.

 A report by Blogworks takes a closer look into the Twitter conversations:

Here are some insights from the study:

• People who have used social media for customer service at least once in the last year are willing to spend substantially more (21%) with companies they believe provide great service – as compared to those who have not used social media for customer service (11% more).
• People who receive great customer service via social media also share more about it, and tell an average of 42 people about their positive experience, compared to just 9 people for those who receive great customer service on non-social channels.
• The converse is also true, those people who receive poor customer service via social media inform an average of 53 people, while non social media users tell 17 people.
• 83 percent of social media users have not completed an intended purchase because of poor customer service, compared to just 49 percent of those not using social media

They survey also revealed the top 5 reasons why consumers use social media channels for customer care:

• Seeking an actual response from a company about a service issue – 50%
• Praising a company for a great service experience – 48%
• Sharing information about their service experience with a wider audience – 47%
• Venting frustration about a poor service experience – 46%
• Asking other users how to have a better service experiences – 43%

Interesting to note - 60% of the respondents said that, in their opinion, companies have improved their response times through social media over the past year. Do you agree with this? What more do you think companies can do to be perceived better by their customers? Share your thoughts with us.